The UNESCO virtual committee is hard at work debating and solutioning across both of its assigned topics, “Strategy for youth and adult literacy (2020-2025)” and “Declaration of Ethical Principles in relation to Climate Change.” The body voted to first open the floor for the concerns of illiteracy and its impact across a wide array of areas, including the COVID-19 pandemic. As recently as 2019, UNESCO has stressed the need for literacy and education in order to support UN Sustainable Development Goals through the Strategy for Youth and Adult Literacy (2020-2025), which seek to provide global support to those populations that are most impacted by high illiteracy rates, especially adult women. In the committee’s first four draft resolutions, the committee has focused on addressing and delivering resources needed to tackle illiteracy, including alternative learning opportunities, funding from the international community, State-level funding goals and a call for infrastructure resources such as transportation and technology. The Representative Charis Mayton of Greece stated that they were looking to boost the schools by providing good teachers and curriculum in the most impacted countries. Many impacted countries are just coming out of financial crises, including Greece, and the body saw a need to stabilize funding for literacy efforts to fight against financial hardships. The COVID-19 pandemic has reversed years of progress towards literacy and exacerbated the widening literacy gap across disadvantaged populations. 

The committee turned to topic two during the afternoon session as they continue working on finalizing the draft resolutions and bringing them to the floor for a committee vote.